"Mitt Romney. Not one of us," is the message that appears on screen in the final moments of the ad, which uses an out-of-context sound bite to attack the Republican nominee’s position on the American auto bailout.

The Washington Post reports:

That’s the tag line to a tough new ad the Obama campaign is airing in Ohio. But it is one that, ironically, echoes a slogan that has been used as a racial code over the last half century or more.

The phrase recalls earlier reports about the Obama campaign’s effort to "destroy Romney" by emphasizing his "weirdness factor," something many observers took to mean a not-so-subtle attack on the Republican’s Mormon faith.

In any event, the use of such controversial language marks a reversal for a president who once claimed his victory in 2008 would prove that "it’s possible to overcome the politics of division and distraction; that it’s possible to overcome the same old negative attacks that are always about scoring points and never about solving our problems."